Cultural site: GRADAC MONASTERY

History

The Gradac Monastery, the endowment of Queen Jelena, the wife of King Uroš, was built at the foot of Mount Golija in the last quarter of the 13th century. The monastery complex was built on the site of an older early vyzantine basilica. The earliest protective works were carried out in 1947/48. years. In 1962, the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments

began extensive systematic research and conservation and restoration work on architecture and painting. The renovation of the church was completed in 1975, and the monastery life was renewed in 1990.1In 1989, the monastery was revived, and in 1997 it became a womens’ monastery.

Cultural site details

The Gradac Monastery (13th century) is the endowment of the Serbian Queen Jelena, the wife of King Uroš I. It is located on the slopes of the Golija Mountain, 21 km away from Raška. The monastery complex consists of buildings: the Great Church of the Mother of God, a small church of St. Nicholas, a dining room with a kitchen, lodgings and economic buildings.3It is contained in the church dedicated to the Annunciation of the Mother of God, a smaller church dedicated to St. Nikolic, dining rooms and economic rooms leaning against a massive perimeter wall. The Church of the Annunciation belongs to the Raska style group, basically a single-nave building with a dome, a three-part altar space on the east and a narthex on the west.4The monastery church contains all the important features of Raska temples, with elements of Gothic. The beauty of the painting, which is preserved only in fragments, can be seen especially in the beautiful scene of the Nativity.5The exterior decoration of the façade is dominated by romantic and gothic decorative elements. In the interior of the temple, the founder's composition has been preserved,

which depicts King Uroš and King Jelena with a model of the temple which, together with St. Simeon Nemanja, the Mother of God brings Christ to the throne. Beneath the founder's composition is a double sarcophagus named for the burial of the royal couple.6Jelena Anzujska was buried in the monastery in 1314, and later her body was placed in a sarcophagus, which is located in front of the altar of the main monastery church, in front of the icon of Christ. The sarcophagus was kept in the monastery until the 17th century, when the monks took it with them during the escape from the Turkish army. The sarcophagus has not been known since.